Rebuilding An Enlightened World

Download Rebuilding An Enlightened World full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Rebuilding An Enlightened World ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Rebuilding an Enlightened World

Author : Bill Ivey
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253030153
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Rebuilding an Enlightened World by : Bill Ivey

Download or read book Rebuilding an Enlightened World written by Bill Ivey and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, the long-assumed belief in the permanence of an enlightened world is suddenly open to challenge. Human rights, participatory government, and social justice are losing global influence, and the world of ordinary people is pushing back against Enlightenment conceits. Accumulated anger links Taliban, Tea Party, and Trump, threatening women's rights, social justice, and democracy. To understand and counteract the threat to these ideas, we must set aside embedded explanations and embrace a new frame of observation and tolerance grounded in the power of belief, legend, and tradition. In Rebuilding an Enlightened World, Bill Ivey explores how folklore offers a unique and compelling new way to understand the underlying forces disrupting the world today. If we are to salvage the best of the Enlightenment dream and build a better future, we must begin to listen, patiently and inquisitively, in order to interpret the customs, norms, and traditional practices that shape all human behavior.

Enlightened Real Estate

Author : Barry B Scherr
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780998130903
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (39 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Enlightened Real Estate by : Barry B Scherr

Download or read book Enlightened Real Estate written by Barry B Scherr and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW DIRECTION FOR REAL ESTATEWe are presently in the midst of one of the greatest transformations in the history of human culture. The simultaneous rise of technological breakthroughs and world consciousness is unprecedented. Old ways of thinking are being swept away. Power structures that dominated for decades are crumbling. New opportunities are arising. People everywhere are questioning how to navigate this new paradigm. As consciousness is rising, a new lifestyle is emerging and real estate will soon regain its traditional role as a stabilizing structure in society. Rising interest in walkable zones, alternative energy, meditation, yoga, and organic food are the first signs of a transformation that is revolutionizing the way we live and the communities we should create. Our buildings and communities need to resonate with this emerging lifestyle and reflect a higher goal for our society. A new asset class, the Ideal Village is a holistic, practical blueprint for buildings and communities that support this stress-free, enlightened approach to life.From abstract idea to practical application, Enlightened Real Estate explores the mindset behind the built environment of today and offers a new, enlightened vision for the future.

The Good Country Equation

Author : Simon Anholt
Publisher : Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1523089628
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Good Country Equation by : Simon Anholt

Download or read book The Good Country Equation written by Simon Anholt and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Not only does Anholt explain the challenges facing the world with unique clarity, he also provides genuinely new, informative, practical, innovative solutions. . . . The book is a must-read for anyone who cares about humanity's shared future.” —H. E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo), President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Simon Anholt has spent decades helping countries from Austria to Zambia to improve their international standing. Using colorful descriptions of his experiences—dining with Vladimir Putin at his country home, taking a group of Felipe Calderon's advisors on their first Mexico City subway ride, touring a beautiful new government hospital in Afghanistan that nobody would use because it was in Taliban-controlled territory—he tells how he began finding answers to that question. Ultimately, Anholt hit on the Good Country Equation, a formula for encouraging international cooperation and reinventing education for a globalized era. Anholt even offers a “selfish” argument for cooperation: he shows that it generates goodwill, which in turn translates into increased trade, foreign investment, tourism, talent attraction, and even domestic electoral success. Anholt insists we can change the way countries behave and the way people are educated in a single generation—because that's all the time we have.

A Force for Good

Author : John G. Taft
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1466879424
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A Force for Good by : John G. Taft

Download or read book A Force for Good written by John G. Taft and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the crisis of 2008, the social contract between the financial industry and everyone else was badly broken-perhaps, it seemed, irrevocably. Since then, banks have paid out billion-dollar settlements and Congress has passed some new laws, but a deeper rapprochement is still missing. John Taft has gathered some of the greatest financial minds of our time to explore how Wall Street can harness the same creative energy that invented credit default swaps and channel it towards the public good- in the form of a stable retirement system, investment strategies that protect the environment and reward responsible corporate behavior, and a financial industry with a culture of ethics, integrity and client focus. These perspectives, from a who's who of leaders in the field, offer a blueprint for a new kind of responsible finance and banking that secures the future for everyone. Contributors include: * Robert Shiller on financial capitalism and innovation *Charles D. Ellis on restoring ethical standards *Sheila Bair on regulatory reform *John C. Bogle and Mary Schapiro on rebuilding investor trust *Judd Gregg on long-term fiscal imbalances *Barbara Novick on the retirement savings gap *David Blood on sustainable finance. With so much brainpower in the financial sector, the potential for change is limitless. A Force for Good is the call to action the industry sorely needs.

The Practice of Folklore

Author : Simon J. Bronner
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496822641
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Practice of Folklore by : Simon J. Bronner

Download or read book The Practice of Folklore written by Simon J. Bronner and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2019-08-01 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2020 Chicago Folklore Prize CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2020 Despite predictions that commercial mass culture would displace customs of the past, traditions firmly abound, often characterized as folklore. In The Practice of Folklore: Essays toward a Theory of Tradition, author Simon J. Bronner works with theories of cultural practice to explain the social and psychological need for tradition in everyday life. Bronner proposes a distinctive “praxic” perspective that will answer the pressing philosophical as well as psychological question of why people enjoy repeating themselves. The significance of the keyword practice, he asserts, is the embodiment of a tension between repetition and variation in human behavior. Thinking with practice, particularly in a digital world, forces redefinitions of folklore and a reorientation toward interpreting everyday life. More than performance or enactment in social theory, practice connects localized culture with the vernacular idea that “this is the way we do things around here.” Practice refers to the way those things are analyzed as part of, rather than apart from, theory, thus inviting the study of studying. “The way we do things” invokes the social basis of “doing” in practice as cultural and instrumental. Building on previous studies of tradition in relation to creativity, Bronner presents an overview of practice theory and the ways it might be used in folklore and folklife studies. Demonstrating the application of this theory in folkloristic studies, Bronner offers four provocative case studies of psychocultural meanings that arise from traditional frames of action and address issues of our times: referring to the boogieman; connecting “wild child” beliefs to school shootings; deciphering the offensive chants of sports fans; and explicating male bravado in bawdy singing. Turning his analysis to the analysts of tradition, Bronner uses practice theory to evaluate the agenda of folklorists in shaping perceptions of tradition-centered “folk societies” such as the Amish. He further unpacks the culturally based rationale of public folklore programming. He interprets the evolving idea of folk museums in a digital world and assesses how the folklorists' terms and actions affect how people think about tradition.

Remaking the World - the Age of Global Enlightenment

Author : Anh Tuan Nguyen
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780578950372
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Remaking the World - the Age of Global Enlightenment by : Anh Tuan Nguyen

Download or read book Remaking the World - the Age of Global Enlightenment written by Anh Tuan Nguyen and published by . This book was released on 2021-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Remaking the World - the Age of Global Enlightenment" proposes pathways toward a more humane, peaceful, and secure world, largely by harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, and other Digital Age technologies. A key proposal is the adoption of an AI International Accord that would bind nations to constructive uses of AI and prohibit destructive uses. The book proposes a Social Contract for the AI Age as the theoretical and ethical foundation of the Accord. The book also proposes the AI World Society (AIWS) as a vehicle through which individuals and civic organizations can help foster an Age of Global Enlightenment.

How to Attain Enlightenment

Author : James Swartz
Publisher : Sentient+ORM
ISBN 13 : 1591811619
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (918 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis How to Attain Enlightenment by : James Swartz

Download or read book How to Attain Enlightenment written by James Swartz and published by Sentient+ORM. This book was released on 2010-02-16 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Goes through the entire gamut of topics covered by the Vedas, making use of yoga, detachment, the ego, karma, dharma, love, meditation and much more.” —East and West Magazine This complete guide to enlightenment presents the wisdom of the ancient science of self-inquiry, a time-tested means for achieving spiritual freedom. The author discusses the purpose of self-inquiry, the quest for lasting happiness, issues of identity and transcendence, the role of wisdom and action, and the subconscious obstacles to freedom. He convincingly refutes the popular view that enlightenment is a unique state of consciousness and debunks a host of other enlightenment myths. In his straightforward style he reveals proven methods for purifying the mind, and includes chapters on love, the science of energy transformation and meditation. He takes the reader from the beginning to the end of the spiritual path, patiently unfolding the logic of self-inquiry. “Vedanta is the original systemized enlightenment teaching, and James does an extraordinary job of extracting the essential nectar of the teachings from its dusty, ancient, Sanskrit origins and elucidating it with utmost clarity. One review cannot do this teaching, with its rich history and depth, even a modicum of justice. James’s book is the best introduction there is to this subject.” —Consciousness Junkie “Explains methods of Vedanta in his survey of spiritual techniques, pairing theory with practice and explaining the myths and realities behind an enlightened state. From reflections on moving to a larger living space and clutter to assimilating experiences, How to Attain Enlightenment is a powerful survey any new age library needs.” —The Bookwatch

Snake

Author : Erica Wright
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501348728
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Snake by : Erica Wright

Download or read book Snake written by Erica Wright and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Feared and worshiped in equal measure, snakes have captured the imagination of poets, painters, and philosophers for centuries. From Ice Age cave drawings to Snakes on a Plane, this creature continues to enthrall the public. But what harm has been caused by our mythologizing? While considering the dangers of stigma, Erica Wright moves from art and pop culture to religion, fetish, and ecologic disaster. This book considers how the snake has become more symbol than animal, a metaphor for how we treat whatever scares us the most, whether or not our panic is justified. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.

Folklore in the United States and Canada

Author : Patricia Sawin
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253052882
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Folklore in the United States and Canada by : Patricia Sawin

Download or read book Folklore in the United States and Canada written by Patricia Sawin and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To ensure continuity and foster innovation within the discipline of folklore, we must know what came before. Folklore in the United States and Canada is an essential guide to the history and development of graduate folklore programs throughout the United States and Canada. As the first history of folklore studies since the mid-1980s, this book offers a long overdue look into the development of the earliest programs and the novel directions of more recent programs. The volume is encyclopedic in its coverage and is organized chronologically based on the approximate founding date of each program. Drawing extensively on archival sources, oral histories, and personal experience, the contributors explore the key individuals and central events in folklore programs at US and Canadian academic institutions and demonstrate how these programs have been shaped within broader cultural and historical contexts. Revealing the origins of graduate folklore programs, as well as their accomplishments, challenges, and connections, Folklore in the United States and Canada is an essential read for all folklorists and those who are studying to become folklorists.

Claiming Space

Author : Sheila Bock
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646425251
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Claiming Space by : Sheila Bock

Download or read book Claiming Space written by Sheila Bock and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2023-10-09 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Claiming Space examines the growing tradition of decorating mortarboards at college graduations, offering a performance-centered approach to these material sites of display. Taking mortarboard displays seriously as public performances of the personal, this book highlights the creative, playful, and powerful ways graduates use their caps to fashion their personal engagement with notions of self, community, education, and the unknown future. Claiming the space of these graduation caps is a popular and widespread way that individuals make their voices heard, or rather seen, in the visual landscape of commencement ceremonies. The forms and meanings of these material displays take shape in relation to broader, ongoing conversations about higher education in the United States, conversations grounded in discourses of belonging, citizenship, and the promises of the American Dream. Integrating observational fieldwork with extensive interviews and surveys, author Sheila Bock highlights the interpretations of individuals participating in this tradition. She also attends to the public framings of this tradition, including how images of mortarboards have grounded online enactments of community through hashtags such as #LatinxGradCaps and #LetTheFeathersFly, as well as what rhetorical framings are employed in news coverage and legal documents in cases where the value of the practice is both called into question and justified. As university administrators and cultural commentators seek to make sense of the current state of higher education, these forms of material expression offer insight into how students themselves are grappling with higher ed's promises and shortcomings. Claiming Space is a meaningful contribution to folklore, cultural studies, media studies, and education.

Enlightenment World

Author : Martin Fitzpatrick
Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 0415215757
Total Pages : 725 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (152 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Enlightenment World by : Martin Fitzpatrick

Download or read book Enlightenment World written by Martin Fitzpatrick and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004-07-22 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Draws together the work of thirty-nine leading international experts on the European Enlightenment (c1660-1800) to offer informed, comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of this period as both an historical epoch and a cultural formation".--BOOKJACKET.

The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy

Author : Anthony Gottlieb
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 163149208X
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (314 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy by : Anthony Gottlieb

Download or read book The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy written by Anthony Gottlieb and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-08-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony Gottlieb’s landmark The Dream of Reason and its sequel challenge Bertrand Russell’s classic as the definitive history of Western philosophy. Western philosophy is now two and a half millennia old, but much of it came in just two staccato bursts, each lasting only about 150 years. In his landmark survey of Western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, The Dream of Reason, Anthony Gottlieb documented the first burst, which came in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now, in his sequel, The Dream of Enlightenment, Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period—from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution—Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy. As Gottlieb explains, all these men were amateurs: none had much to do with any university. They tried to fathom the implications of the new science and of religious upheaval, which led them to question traditional teachings and attitudes. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversity—and what, actually, is government for? Such questions remain our questions, which is why Descartes, Hobbes, and the others are still pondered today. Yet it is because we still want to hear them that we can easily get these philosophers wrong. It is tempting to think they speak our language and live in our world; but to understand them properly, we must step back into their shoes. Gottlieb puts readers in the minds of these frequently misinterpreted figures, elucidating the history of their times and the development of scientific ideas while engagingly explaining their arguments and assessing their legacy in lively prose. With chapters focusing on Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Pierre Bayle, Leibniz, Hume, Rousseau, and Voltaire—and many walk-on parts—The Dream of Enlightenment creates a sweeping account of what the Enlightenment amounted to, and why we are still in its debt.

Enlightenment Now

Author : Steven Pinker
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0525427570
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (254 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Enlightenment Now by : Steven Pinker

Download or read book Enlightenment Now written by Steven Pinker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

Liberal Leviathan

Author : G. John Ikenberry
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691156174
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Liberal Leviathan by : G. John Ikenberry

Download or read book Liberal Leviathan written by G. John Ikenberry and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-26 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second half of the twentieth century, the United States engaged in the most ambitious and far-reaching liberal order building the world had yet seen. This liberal international order has been one of the most successful in providing security and prosperity to more people, but in the last decade the American-led order has been troubled. Some argue that the Bush administration undermined it. Others argue that we are witnessing he end of the American era. In Liberal Leviathan G. John Ikenberry argues that the crisis that besets the American-led order is a crisis of authority. The forces that have triggered this crisis have resulted from the successful functioning and expansion of the postwar liberal order, not its breakdown.

Making Your Own Luck

Author : Fred Glass
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 025305947X
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Making Your Own Luck by : Fred Glass

Download or read book Making Your Own Luck written by Fred Glass and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One man's odyssey from skid row to rebuilding a major collegiate sports program. In Making Your Own Luck, former Indiana University athletic director Fred Glass recounts how even a self-described "knucklehead" learned to be prepared to recognize and seize opportunities and thus make his own luck through life. Growing up in a skid row bar, having an alcoholic father, struggling with anxiety and self-doubt, and making his share of stupid mistakes, Glass had much to contend with in early life. However, supported by socially enlightened parents, a Jesuit education, and his soulmate, Barbara, his odyssey has led him to serve a mayor, a governor, a senator, and even a president. With great humor and insightful reflection, Glass details how he helped keep the Colts in Indianapolis—he spearheaded a massive convention center expansion and the building of Lucas Oil Stadium and even helped to attract the Super Bowl to his hometown. Any of these accomplishments individually would be more than enough to call Glass's career a resounding success, but they were only the beginning. In the latest stage of his journey, Glass led the rebuilding of the athletic program of his beloved alma mater, Indiana University. Featuring a foreword from IU alumnus and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Making Your Own Luck is a must-read not only for Indiana sports fans, but for anyone that recognizes the importance of preparation, opportunity and action in creating your own success.

Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City

Author : Jonathan Soffer
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231150334
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City by : Jonathan Soffer

Download or read book Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City written by Jonathan Soffer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1978, Ed Koch assumed control of a city plagued by filth, crime, bankruptcy, and racial tensions. By the end of his mayoral run in 1989 and despite the Wall Street crash of 1987, his administration had begun rebuilding neighborhoods and infrastructure. Unlike many American cities, Koch's New York was growing, not shrinking. Gentrification brought new businesses to neglected corners and converted low-end rental housing to coops and condos. Nevertheless, not all the changes were positive--AIDS, crime, homelessness, and violent racial conflict increased, marking a time of great, if somewhat uneven, transition. For better or worse, Koch's efforts convinced many New Yorkers to embrace a new political order subsidizing business, particularly finance, insurance, and real estate, and privatizing public space. Each phase of the city's recovery required a difficult choice between moneyed interests and social services, forcing Koch to be both a moderate and a pragmatist as he tried to mitigate growing economic inequality. Throughout, Koch's rough rhetoric (attacking his opponents as "crazy," "wackos," and "radicals") prompted charges of being racially divisive. The first book to recast Koch's legacy through personal and mayoral papers, authorized interviews, and oral histories, this volume plots a history of New York City through two rarely studied yet crucial decades: the bankruptcy of the 1970s and the recovery and crash of the 1980s.

A Partial Enlightenment

Author : Avram Alpert
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231553390
Total Pages : 119 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A Partial Enlightenment by : Avram Alpert

Download or read book A Partial Enlightenment written by Avram Alpert and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many ways, Buddhism has become the global religion of the modern world. For its contemporary followers, the ideal of enlightenment promises inner peace and worldly harmony. And whereas other philosophies feel abstract and disembodied, Buddhism offers meditation as a means to realize this ideal. If we could all be as enlightened as Buddhists, some imagine, we could live in a much better world. For some time now, however, this beatific image of Buddhism has been under attack. Scholars and practitioners have criticized it as a Western fantasy that has nothing to do with the actual experiences of Buddhists. Avram Alpert combines personal experience and readings of modern novels to offer another way to understand modern Buddhism. He argues that it represents a rich resource not for attaining perfection but rather for finding meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. Finding unexpected affinities across world literature—Rudyard Kipling in colonial India, Yukio Mishima in postwar Japan, Bessie Head escaping apartheid South Africa—as well as in his own experiences living with Tibetan exiles, Alpert shows how these stories illuminate a world in which suffering is inevitable and total enlightenment is impossible. Yet they also give us access to partial enlightenments: powerful insights that become available when we come to terms with imperfection and stop looking for wholeness. A Partial Enlightenment reveals the moments of personal and social transformation that the inventions of modern Buddhism help make possible.